Is the call in cards really that bad?

[gluon999]

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I am currently an MS1 and am leaning towards internal medicine, then cards or GI.


I just wanted to know if the call in cards (and GI if you happen to know a thing or two about it) is as bad as it is made to be. Maintaing a healthy family life is important to me so I would like to know about the cardiology lifestyle. Also, including call, how many hours does the avg. card (non-invasive or invasive) put in? I have heard figures around 60 hrs/wk...is that correct?

 

[Firebird]

This is a great question I'd like to know about, as well. From what I've heard, interventional guys are considered by Iserson to be the second hardest working group (behind Ortho). However, I wonder about the general cardiologist working in private practice doing diagnostics and medical management of cardiac patients.

 

[gwen]

are you talking about call as a fellow or attending?

as a fellow, call can be pretty brutal (depends on which year you are). my husband is a first year fellow and his calls are usually weekend/inhouse and tough. but they get easier b/c as a 2/3rd year they only take weekday night call, so they only cover 12 hours and get to come home post-call by 1pm. and they only take call 1-2x/month he has other friends who take home call so its not as bad, but i'm sure its also annoying to have to drive into the hospital at 2 in the morning.

as an attending, i'm sure interventional call sucks. the other non-invasive people probably have call similar to IM or any other field that takes call and they don't have to come in at night.

GI fellowship is very difficult as well. i don't know the details about call though, but i can imagine that you are super busy. those and pulmonary fellows are some of the busiest in the hospital in the internal medicine field. as an attending, again, it will be busier than IM, b/c you have to come in for those UGI bleeds to scope people.

 

[gluon999]

I meant, call hours post fellowship.

 

[vök]

In a large private practice a friend of mine an IC does Q5 (it might be Q4, I'm not 100% sure), with all elective procedures done in his clinic. It is roughly 60 hr/week.

 

[tibor75]

Depends upon the group you are in and what your responsibilities are. if you don't have NPs or residents/fellows working with you, EVERY single issue that comes up with "your" patients, they will call you. From "He's having an MI" to "he's having CP" to "He wants Ambien to go to bed" - you will get called.

if you hire NPs, those calls go down. But then your pay goes down too, since your group has to pay them somehow. personally i'd rather make 300,000 as opposed to 400,000 and get some sleep.